Learning to Live is Part of Surviving
by Dork1010
Summary: "Of course I care about them! But how the fuck we gonna find em Beth? We gonna use you're IPhone too call them? We can't track that many people! You think we are the only ones who got separated? And I mean honestly what is gonna happen when we find someone who wasn't lucky? What if we find Maggie but shes trying to eat me? You gonna fucking stab her? Cause i won't. I can't." -BG DD
1. Chapter 1

"Beth we have to go. Now!" Daryl had grabbed her and was pulling her by the arm. Daryl had watched Maggie run off from her to find Glenn and he had debated only to swiftly decided he couldn't leave Beth alone not here after she had Been through so much just today. She was pulling against him trying to wait for her sister. He spun around looking at her young pretty face "Beth I know that there a bunch of people who we love here in a bunch of danger and I know you just lost someone but I need to get you out of here alive do you understand? I promised your father I would keep you safe and I will. Now run. we will find the others later." She finally started to follow him and they ran and ran Daryl killing walkers with one hand her doing the same them holding on to each other for dear damn life. They exited the prison from a hole in the fence Beth stopped but Daryl kept pulling her forward saying she had to keep going. Don't stop don't look back she was sobbing and he could tell but he just held on to her hand harder. Finally after what felt like ages they stopped to catch their breath. Once Daryl let go of her hand Beth clasped to the forest ground, the leaves around her crunching. Daryl looked around checking for walkers drawn by the noise. He walked up beside her, she wasn't crying anymore she was just staring into space like she couldn't move anymore. He touched her shoulder lightly, she didn't move. He sat beside her figured he'd give her a minute. They had been sitting for a bit when he heard the familiar groans and footsteps that singled the time for them to move again.

"Let's go. Walkers." he whispered in to her ear. She didn't move and he went to help her up she pulled back.

"Please don't make me go. I can't do this anymore. Im tired my family is gone. I have no one." She didn't have any emotion in her voice and she didn't bother to be quite. The walkers were getting closer and Daryl was starting to panic. He grabbed her tiny face in his rough dirty hands "look at me Beth Greene you have me and i need you. Maggie is out there and she needs you there is a heard and it's coming right for us I need you to get the fuck up and run with me. Do you understand?" Beth got up slowly she didn't quite understand what made her but she knew in her heart she couldn't leave someone alone out here. She got up and took his hand again sprinting from the heard. They ran until they couldn't anymore then they walked. For some reason beth felt that if she let go of his hand she might clasp again, Daryl was the only thing that was keeping her up and going the only thing keeping her alive right now so she held on to him with a fierceness that she didn't think she had anymore. This morning had emotional destroyed her. She couldn't help the tears that streamed down her face, they had been coming on and off all day. Finally Daryl stopped and she looked up to see why, in front of them sat a small cabin. Beth looked around they had been walking or run for most of the day trying to out run the governors people and the walkers but she hadn't really payed attention to when the sun had started to set.

"Let's stay here. Here's better than outside and I need to sleep. I really need this day to end." Daryl nodded at Beth's statement and walked up the rickety stairs to knock on the door. As soon as the sound of his knuckles hit the door they heard the snarls that escaped from inside. Daryl looked at Beth and prayed he could count on her right now he nodded at the blonde and she nodded back. Daryl opened the door and three walkers poured out. Beth met the first of the walkers on the stairs and stabbed him in the head, he walked up behind the other two and buried the hilt of his bolts in the back of the other two skulls. When the stair had been cleared of the bodies they walked in to the cabin knifes raised incase any others were lingering behind closed doors. Once the cabin was cleared they scowered for food or clean clothes anything that they could find that would help them survive.


	2. Chapter 2

I own nothing. All Characters belong to The Walking Dead.

They had found 3 bags of beef jerky and two cans of beans in the cabin that night and after dinner Beth made her way up the stairs in to the bedroom. She looked at everything covered in dust and decided she wanted some clean sheets not somebody's already been slept in sheets. She went to the small linens closet outside of the room and happened to hear Daryl, who was still down stairs he was playing guitar. She listened for a moment, he was good a little rusty but still she could tell at one point he was pretty good. As Beth started changing the sheets she found her shelf humming along. Before all this music was one of her favorite things, something she had always relied on to get her through the hardest time in her life. After her mothers death even when things were gone to hell and no one found things like music important, Beth had kept her small pink battery operated boom box and she would turn it on for 15 minutes every night until one night it wouldn't turn on and she cried harder for that then anything else, for her that loss of music had signaled the end of it. The actual end of the world for Beth Greene had been because of a small pink boom box. That night in the cabin was one of the most peaceful nights of sleep Beth had had since the loss of that pink boom box.

Daryl sat downstairs while Beth slept away. His heart was hurting for the girl upstairs, she was in a bad place and he knew it felt like she was being buried under the weight of today. Beth had lost her father and he was very worried about her because he wasn't there when her mother had died but he had seen her when her dead mother had been killed again. She had tried to kill herself and honestly he couldn't handle her attempting again he needed her right now. 2 hours after she went up stairs to sleep he went to check on her, then when he saw she was sleeping soundly he went to the room next to hers and got in to the shitty bed. Daryl feel asleep fast but slept extremely unrestful. He spent the night in a fit of nightmares waking up at Dawn feeling more tired than the day before. HE got up out of the bed still dressed in his clothes from the previous night, and looked in on beth who was still blissfully asleep.

He walked down the stairs and scrounged around for a pen and paper letting his blonde companion know that he had gone out to get breakfast for them. He walked around the woods feeling more at home here than he ever had at the prison. Before his mother's death they had lived in a cabin like this out in the middle of no where with just themselves. When Daryl was younger he always thought that his dad had planned it that way because people couldn't hear the fight or screams or see what was happening behind those doors. He caught two rabbits and a couple of bad memories by the time he called it quits and headed back to the cabin. When he walked in he was meet with the hilt of a knife on his adams apple. He went to reach for the pistol at his hip but before he could the knife was pulled away.

"Oh lord. Im so sorry Daryl i just woke up and was walking downstairs as you came in i panicked I'm sorry. Where'd you go?" She passed by him and he made sure she didn't see the fear on his face. When the knife had hit his throat he thought someone must have gotten to the cabin and Beth was in danger. But instead he had been pleasantly surpassed by her. This could only be a good sign her defending the cabin.

"I got breakfast and probably lunch. Let me skin them real fast," he walked back out the door and sat down on the edge of the porch. He heard the door open then shut, he didn't look up at her but he could feel her presences and see her shadow looming in front of him.

"I don't know what to do or say. I don't know how to handle this. I don't have any parents Daryl. They are gone both of them, my momma and my daddy. Its me and maybe Maggie but I'm probably it. The last of the Greenes. Do you ever think about that Daryl? Do you ever think about how you are probably the end of the Dixon bloodline i mean all you're family is gone too. We got a bit in common in that sense huh?" She talked real quiet and she sounded really sad i looked up at her and put the partially skinned rabbit down. She had sat down next to me with her small pale feet pushed against the porch rails and her head leaned against the wood siding of the house. She looked emotionless and he wondered what it was that was keeping her that way. She hadn't cried since they had left the prison not really at least. Not like a conscious cry like a cry where she sat down and just felt it. He knew she needed it just like he had when he lost Merle. She hadnt expected him to answer her question but he did and when he did he used the same quiet voice she had just moments before.

"Sometimes i think about the fact that i could be the end of humanity that we could truly be the last of the people on this plant. The last generation. I think my brother was too much of a slut for me to be the youngest and only Dixon out there, but i do think about how this could be it the people we meet now could be the last people this planet sees and it scares me. Soemtimes i think about what world Judith will grow up in and how she will never have a mother and sometimes i pray to be the last Dixon out here because i don't want to subject anymore of my family to hell that seems to curse us." Beth kinda sat quiet for a second then she sniffled and he watched her the rabbit forgotten he watched her crack like he knew she needed to, and he watched her curl in to herself and sob. At some point he didn't remember he must of gotten up and scooped her in to his big sweaty dirty arms and held her while she cried and clung to him like he was the last person on this planet. He shushed her tears and smoothed her praying no walker would show up right now. Finally after she was cried out she was just sitting in his lap curled in to his strong arms and she wrapped her arms around his neck he held her close and she thanked God for him.

"What turned you away from people? Why were you never this open at the prion?" She asked him and instantly knew it was a mistake she had moved to fast too soon. He squeezed her one last time before releasing her and kind of nudging her from his lap.

"We ever wanna eat tonight I better finish skinning these rabbits. Can you get a fire set up for me in there? I'm hungry." Beth nodded and walked back in to their little building. They hadn't spoken about it but they would most likely be staying here again tonight as it was well past noon and they hadn't made a move to leave, leaving after noon in forest this dense which signaled they were far from civilization meant they would be spending the night out there in the dark, and she knew that was never a good option mainly just a last resort option finding this place had been a blessing and those were hard to find these days so Beth was considering herself lucky have the two she did.

Author's Note.

-Hey guys! So This is my first fanfiction in years and I'm probably a little rusty with my fiction writing skills so bare with me while I come back to is also my first Walking dead fic so we shall see how it goes lol. Anyways I Know I'm not sticking to total cannon with this story and I'm kinda changing the way things go and truthfully its probably gonna stay that way considering I have a general direction I was this story to take its actually very far from where the show left us. I still plan to include the things that have happened in the show Just in my own way and I will be bringing the rest of the cast in to the story just so you guys know where they are in this slightly AU. So thank you for reading my story and please review it boost my confidence so much haha. Anyways follows and favorites are also completely welcomed. If you have a place you would really like to see the story going im hear to listen not saying ill listen just saying I do take ideas,

Thank you guys.

-Madison


	3. Chapter 3

I own nothing. All Characters belong to The Walking Dead.

The rabbits fed them for lunch and dinner as well. Daryl had been avoiding Beth as much as he could since their talk on the stairs that afternoon. He was finding it rather difficult because unlike the prison, they were in close quarters and he was their main source of protection, so he couldn't let her leave his sight for too long without starting to worry. Daryl remained concerned that she had gone back to emotionless Beth, he was also slightly thankful. Beth was kind hearted and it hurt to know she was in so much pain, and seeing her cry made it real for him. He had grown fond Hershel, everyone had, he was a lot like his youngest in the fact that they were warm and loving people; you didn't want to se them harmed. They didn't deserve this world.

Daryl had been running wild trying to figure out what to do those last couple days before Hershel had been taken, things at the prison were strained and people were worried about the sickness and Carol. Daryl was still reeling from Merle's death. He had been trying to keep his mind off it, he remember he was wondering around, when Hershel had called him over. Daryl walked over to the bench beside the older man. Finally after Daryl was starting to wonder if the old man was loosing his mind he spoke.

"I need you to take care of Beth. I am coming close to my end, i know it i can feel it. Daryl I need you to keep her safe." Hershel was looking at his missing leg.

"You gonna be fine, Hershel. Trust me you're a damn fighter. Nothin' gonna get you. I don't need to keep and eye on Beth. She's fine. Smart, strong. Like her dad." I was uneasy, this conversation wasn't one I wanted to be having with Hershel. Hell it wasn't one he wanted to be having with anyone. Daryl kept his eyes on the floor not sure what to say or do.

"Daryl you don't understand. I can feel it i need to get my duck in a row. I just know. You will know too when its your time to go you just know you feel it. Like when women give birth they clean, right before they go in to labor. ITs called nesting then. It's the same now its just me getting my affairs in order instead of a home. Anyways listen to me Daryl Maggie is strong she has Glenn. But Beth, Beth needs someone to protect her and keep her safe. You are the best for the job. I can trust you Daryl, you're a good man. She needs a friend that can talk to her in more than goo's and gah's. Beth does amazing things with Judith and its appreciated but she is gonna need someone to protect her when I'm gone." Daryl rubbed his now very flushed face. H didn't like to think about the veterinarian dying. He was their main source of medical care.

"Look Hershel, even if something were to happen to you we are here and we are safe. Nothin' is gonna hurt Beth or Maggie. They are behind these walls safe and sound. You know that. Beth doesn't protecting." Daryl just didn't want to be responsible for another person the last one he had made a promise to keep safe, he had had to stab in the skull.

"Not just from the outside Daryl from herself. If i go she's gonna loose it and i need you to tell me you will make sure she keeps going. No matter what you gotta keep my baby going. Promise me Daryl. Keep my Beth safe." The old man then got up and hobbled away, not giving Daryl time to even object. 4 days later The Governor had taken Hershel's head off.

Beth was trying to keep quiet and unemotional so she didn't make unhappy or regretful he took her Daryl. He had already done so much for her by protecting her and keeping her physically safe, he shouldn't have to support her emotionally too. So she kept it in, a skill Beth had learned from her mother. Beth had a wonderful childhood, truly she did, but sometimes she would remember when her father would get past the point of drunk and not hit her mother, but he would be mean he would say horrible awful things to her. Beth remembered watching her mother take the insults in silence then go to bed not showing a hint of emotion never yelling back or even crying she would just go sleep in the guest bedroom next to Beth's room. The next day on the way to school her mother would tell her, " Don't let them see you cry Beth Greene. You are strong." It had been one of the last things her mom had said to her too.

Multiple times that day she had gone out the back door letting Daryl think she had to use the restroom, then braced her self against a tree or the porch as she attempted to breathe or as she shed a couple tears. She knew she was having small panic attacks and she was doing her best to keep them under control and out of sight. Beth reminded herself that the panic attacks would go away they had happened when she lost her mother too, eventually over time they faded, as did the soul crushing despair she had felt and was feeling now. The pain had faded to a deep ache that resided in her heart, but was manageable. Beth remembered the way that it felt when she looked in to her dad's eyes for the last time and went back outside this time slouching down against the tree and sobbing silently. She told herself the pain would fade that the end of the hurt would come but like last time it seemed impossible that she would be able to move on without her family beside her.

Beth flip-flopped between cursing Daryl for not leaving her to die at the prison and feeling like she owed him everything for saving her. And right now as she stood there bawling her eyes out she was angry that he had saved her. Why did he have to save her? There were so many people at the prison who he got along with better and who were probably more useful. Beth couldn't do anything, she was mediocre at killing zombies, all right at cooking, horrible at hunting and tracking, terribly afraid, she could go on and on about why she should have been one of the ones walking around dead back at the prison, she wanted to be.

"Beth? Beth?" Daryl came out the door screaming her name. She had been sitting across from him not doing anything then when he looked up she was gone. He had thought maybe she had gone to use the bathroom so he let her be, she wasn't helpless he reminded himself. But after about ten minutes he started to worry and thought back he didn't hear the door close and he called her name, without an answer he went to the front door and pulled it open, her blonde head wasn't insight but he saw she walkers around the tree line. His heart started pounding in his chest a little harder. He quickly disposed of them and went back in to the house heading for the backdoor. He was praying she hadn't gotten caught off guard, if some were that close and she was being careless it wouldn't be hard for her to be bitten. He pulled the backdoor open so fast he thought it might come off its hinges.

She was still in the middle of her pity party when Daryl came out yelling her name. She wiped her eyes on the backs of her hands and cleared her throat. "Yeah?" she hollered back in a voice that hopefully didn't sound like it had been filled with tears moments ago.

"Are you ok? There were three walkers out front and it made me worry. Its probably time we move on tomorrow. No reason to stay here." Daryl was looking at the ground. She was young and now out here with only him. She had lost her whole family, and she was close to her family not like himself. When his family had died it had been hard even though he never particularly liked any of them, except his mom.

"We should look for the others." Her voice cracked as she spoke, but he ignored it. Daryl shook his head.

"No we need to get out on the road. The walkers from the prison are still close by and we need to get some more supplies. We gotta move on." It was hard for him to say that, to say they should leave their friends and family.

"But you said yourself Maggie might be out there. Daryl pleas…" Beth was looking at him with her big blue eyes innocently pleading. He knew it was gonna be an argument. He cut her off, " No. Beth it fuckin pointless."

"You've bee saying this whole time my sister is alive! How can you just say fuck em? That's family Daryl. Judith? Maggie? Rick? Don't you care? How can you just say no its all about us! We need to find them!" Normally Beth yelling fuck would warrant her a talking to but now he was so mad she didn't get it he didn't care.

"Of course I fucking care about them! I love Judith as much as you! And Rick was about the closest thing I had to family out here. But how the fuck we gonna find em Beth? We gonna use you're fucking IPhone too call them? We can't track that many people? You think we are the only ones who got separated? And I mean honestly Beth what is gonna happen when we find someone who wasn't so lucky? What if we find Maggie but shes trying to eat me? You gonna fucking stab her? You gonna cut off your sisters fucking head? Because I sure as hell don't wanna have to do that to a single person from that goddamn prison. So we gotta move on. Run in to people if we do great if not fine we got us and we gotta fucking move on. Grow up Beth. This isn't rainbow and sunshine its fucking hard out here." Beth was crying again but Daryl was so mad he didn't fucking care, "Pack your shit we leave in the morning." He stocked back inside and she followed shortly after sure their fight had drawn attention to the walkers.

-thanks for reading


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